This is my treatment for Brush Stroke:
Brush Stroke
LOGLINE: The story of a starving artist who is in a dead-end job and doesn't fit in who loses his inspiration before finding it again after gaining the ability to literally enter works of art, as though they are different dimensions.
Act One:
Michael is a artist in his spare time, he paints fantastic works of art but sadly has not been successful in the art world and as such is forced to work a dead-end job in a three star Italian restaurant, this is a problem for Michael as he feels like a caged bird as he does not speak Italian, like his coworkers and boss, thus he feels out of place and as though his job is stifling his creativity and from this his art is suffering. On the whole Michael is a loner, save for his young attractive friend Shannon, although Shannon is young she is already in a high paying job in a bank and lives something of a luxury life, quite the opposite to Michael. Michael is also very proud and often declines financial help from Shannon despite his money problems and his low income.
At the beginning of the film Michael is painting a landscape in his basement which is spectacular, we follow his every stroke until he is finished and he takes a step back from his stand, smiles and goes upstairs from his art workshop (which is in his basement) and to bed. The following morning he looks through the mail in his bare, dull kitchen while he eats toast that he’s burnt and we see that he has several bills, one of which is a very serious bill for his rent which is a last notice before his eviction. Michael then leaves the house and goes to work via a rusted old bike.
Upon arriving at work he goes straight into the kitchen where immediately he has orders barked at him while his two co-workers stand and chat in Italian, the day winds on and at the end of the day he cycles a few streets to meet with Shannon at a coffee shop. The two chat about their day and Michael begins to vent his problems to Shannon and he begins to let go more and more whilst telling her about his financial troubles and that he may lose his house due to back rent. On the brink of a full breakdown, Michael stops talking and begins to drink his coffee, Shannon then offers to pay off his back rent and some of his bills. Michael angrily denies her offer and she reaches a minor compromise as he lets her pay for the coffee. The two then part ways and once Michael is home he immediately goes to his basement to paint to take his mind off of the day.
Act Two:
Upon attempting a painting in his basement Michael can no longer find his inspiration, he tries and tries but cannot put the brush to canvas and do anything good, as we see him struggle his frustration grows he eventually snaps and throws the canvas across the room before slumping into a corner and sobbing as to him it is as though he has lost the only thing in life that brings him joy. We then go again to his next day at work and as he is getting bawled at by his boss he stares at a painting on the wall of a forest, all of a sudden Michael finds himself in the forest from the painting and he walks through the trees and gets lost. he then comes across a floating framed picture of his basement as he left it. Michael stops to ponder the photo before he then finds himself in his basement stood in the middle of the wreckage from the previous night. he tidies up his mess and sets about sketching an outline for a landscape, he has not yet found his inspiration again but has found enough to begin sketching.
The next day Michael has a meeting in a lettings agency with his landlord about all his back-rent. whilst he is being asked to explain himself and to explain how he is going to pay back the debt, Michaels stares and studies a painting on the wall of a marina, the same thing happens again and he finds himself on a marina front that appears to be empty. Michael walks along the front for sometime before looking down and once again seeing his basement only this time it is on the floor. Once again he stops to study the picture before him and finds himself all of a sudden stood in front of his canvas and paints, he then picks up the brush with renewed enthusiasm begins to paint a landscape of a forest by a river with a log cabin. Upon doing a substantial amount of the painting Michael puts down the brush and goes to bed.
Act three:
For the first time in a while Michael wakes up with a good feeling about the day and arranges to get coffee with Shannon before work, so the two of them meet up in there usual cafe and they chat as they usually do. Shannon notices that Michael is a lot brighter than usual and Michael cannot help but tell her about his new found ability to enter paintings, for obvious reasons Shannon cannot believe Michael. He pleads with her to believe him before eventually offering to prove it with one of the paintings in the diner, a small painting of a cottage in the country. Michael takes her hand and really focuses hard on the painting but to no avail. no matter how hard Michael tries he cannot get it to work. Shannon now thinks Michael is making fun of her and tells him he must've dreamt his trips into the paintings. She then leaves cash on the table and leaves angrily and abruptly.
Feeling somewhat upset about what had happened and also wondering if it was a dream Michael cycles to work to find out he is being sacked for ‘what happened the other day’ (while he was in the painting) when he asks the boss to explain he just says that he was barely there all day (Michael is unsure whether he means physically or mentally). Distraught by how his day has gone Michael cycles home only to find that there is an eviction notice on his door. Michael tears the notice off of the door and immediately goes to his landscape.
Michael pulls a chair up to the painting to stand on so he can paint the top of his canvas and we watch him put the last few strokes to his masterpiece before the chair gives way and we see his legs dangle, Michael has killed himself so he can live in his perfect masterpiece. However as he is hanging there he drops his paintbrush which is covered in black paint and we look over his painting to see a black figure next to the log house as we fade to black to end the film there will be a slight movement from the figure as if to suggest that he is alive in the painting but it is deliberately vague to make the viewer decide if he is alive or not and thus whether he did have the power to go into paintings.
This was my original treatment but like with the step outlines the story evolved over the writing process due to me finding out how things worked in practise.
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